American jets killed Iraqi troops with
firebombs – similar to the controversial napalm used in the Vietnam
War – in March and April as Marines battled toward Baghdad.

Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from
the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near
bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions
created massive fireballs.

Mark 77 Firebomb

"We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. Randolph
Alles in a recent interview. He commanded Marine Air Group 11, based
at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, during the war. "Unfortunately,
there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit)
video.

"They were Iraqi soldiers there. It's no great way to die," he
added. How many Iraqis died, the military couldn't say. No accurate
count has been made of Iraqi war casualties.

The bombing campaign helped clear the path for the Marines' race
to Baghdad.

During the war, Pentagon spokesmen disputed reports that napalm
was being used, saying the Pentagon's stockpile had been destroyed
two years ago.

Apparently the spokesmen were drawing a distinction between the
terms "firebomb" and "napalm." If reporters had asked about
firebombs, officials said yesterday they would have confirmed their
use.

What the Marines dropped, the spokesmen said yesterday, were
"Mark 77 firebombs." They acknowledged those are incendiary devices
with a function "remarkably similar" to napalm weapons.

Rather than using gasoline and benzene as the fuel, the firebombs
use kerosene-based jet fuel, which has a smaller concentration of
benzene.

Hundreds of partially loaded Mark 77 firebombs were stored on
pre-positioned ammunition ships overseas, Marine Corps officials
said. Those ships were unloaded in Kuwait during the weeks preceding
the war.

"You can call it something other than napalm, but it's napalm,"
said John Pike, defense analyst with
GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan research group in Alexandria,
Va.

Although many human rights groups consider incendiary bombs to be
inhumane, international law does not prohibit their use against
military forces. The United States has not agreed to a ban against
possible civilian targets.

"Incendiaries create burns that are difficult to treat," said
Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, a Washington group that opposes the use of weapons
of mass destruction.

Musil described the Pentagon's distinction between napalm and
Mark 77 firebombs as "pretty outrageous."

"That's clearly Orwellian," he added.

Developed during World War II and dropped on troops and Japanese
cities, incendiary bombs have been used by American forces in nearly
every conflict since. Their use became controversial during the
Vietnam War when U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft dropped millions
of pounds of napalm. Its effects were shown in a Pulitzer
Prize-winning photograph of Vietnamese children running from their
burned village.

Before March, the last time U.S. forces had used napalm in combat
was the Persian Gulf War, again by Marines.

During a recent interview about the bombing campaign in Iraq,
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Jim Amos confirmed aircraft dropped what he
and other Marines continue to call napalm on Iraqi troops on several
occasions. He commanded Marine jet and helicopter units involved in
the Iraq war and leads the Miramar-based 3rd Marine Air Wing.

Miramar pilots familiar with the bombing missions pointed to at
least two locations where firebombs were dropped.

Before the Marines crossed the Saddam Canal in central Iraq, jets
dropped several firebombs on enemy positions near a bridge that
would become the Marines' main crossing point on the road toward
Numaniyah, a key town 40 miles from Baghdad.

Next, the bombs were used against Iraqis near a key Tigris River
bridge, north of Numaniyah, in early April.

There were reports of another attack on the first day of the war.

Two embedded journalists reported what they described as napalm
being dropped on an Iraqi observation post at Safwan Hill
overlooking the Kuwait border.

Reporters for CNN and theSydney
(Australia) Morning Herald were
told by unnamed Marine officers that aircraft dropped napalm on the
Iraqi position, which was adjacent to one of the Marines' main
invasion routes.

Their reports were disputed by several Pentagon spokesmen who
said no such bombs were used nor did the United States have any
napalm weapons.

The Pentagon destroyed its stockpile of napalm canisters, which
had been stored near Camp Pendleton at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons
Station, in April 2001.

Yesterday military spokesmen described what they see as the
distinction between the two types of incendiary bombs. They said
mixture used in modern firebombs is a less harmful mixture than
Vietnam War-era napalm.

"Many folks (out of
habit) refer to the Mark 77 as 'napalm' because its
effect upon the target is remarkably similar."

Col. Michael Daily

"This additive has significantly less of an impact on the
environment," wrote Marine spokesman Col. Michael Daily, in an
e-mailed information sheet provided by the Pentagon.

He added, "many folks (out of habit) refer to the Mark 77 as
'napalm' because its effect upon the target is remarkably similar."

In the e-mail, Daily also acknowledged that firebombs were
dropped near Safwan Hill.

Alles, who oversaw the Safwan bombing raid, said 18 one-ton
satellite-guided bombs, but no incendiary bombs, were dropped on the
site.

Military experts say incendiary bombs can be an effective weapon
in certain situations.

Firebombs are useful against dug-in troops and light vehicles,
said GlobalSecurity's Pike.

"I used it routinely in Vietnam," said retired Marine Lt. Gen.
Bernard Trainor, now a prominent defense analyst. "I have no moral
compunction against using it. It's just another weapon."

And, the distinctive fireball and smell have a psychological
impact on troops, experts said.

"The generals love napalm," said Alles, who has transferred to
Washington. "It has a big psychological effect."